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Designing and implementing an evaluation of a national work support program

Author

Listed:
  • Ng, Irene Y.H.
  • Ho, Kong Weng
  • Nesamani, Tharmalingam
  • Lee, Alex
  • Liang, Ngiam Tee

Abstract

Welfare reforms in the 1990s have shifted governments around the world towards financial assistance conditional on work. While large-scale rigorous research on welfare-to-work programs has demonstrated effectiveness towards employment in other countries, no such micro-level evaluation of a policy has ever been conducted in Singapore. This article describes the process of developing a large experimental evaluation of the Work Support Program, which the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports started in 2006. The lessons learned from planning and implementing the research can be helpful to future researchers in negotiating long-term rigorous evaluations in an environment where collaborators lack sufficient research knowledge. Insights include ways to focus on the essentials, find alternative experimental designs, collaborate effectively, and adapt instruments across cultures.

Suggested Citation

  • Ng, Irene Y.H. & Ho, Kong Weng & Nesamani, Tharmalingam & Lee, Alex & Liang, Ngiam Tee, 2012. "Designing and implementing an evaluation of a national work support program," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 78-87.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:epplan:v:35:y:2012:i:1:p:78-87
    DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2011.07.002
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. John Van Reenen, 2004. "Active Labor Market Policies and the British New Deal for the Young Unemployed in Context," NBER Chapters, in: Seeking a Premier Economy: The Economic Effects of British Economic Reforms, 1980–2000, pages 461-496, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Rucker C. Johnson & Mary E. Corcoran, 2003. "The road to economic self-sufficiency: Job quality and job transition patterns after welfare reform," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(4), pages 615-639.
    3. Howard S. Bloom & Carolyn J. Hill & James A. Riccio, 2003. "Linking program implementation and effectiveness: Lessons from a pooled sample of welfare-to-work experiments," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(4), pages 551-575.
    4. Richard Blundell & Monica Costa Dias & Costas Meghir & John Van Reenen, 2004. "Evaluating the Employment Impact of a Mandatory Job Search Program," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(4), pages 569-606, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Gao, Xingyuan & Shen, Jianping & Wu, Huang & Krenn, Huilan Y., 2019. "Evaluating program effects: Conceptualizing and demonstrating a typology," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 88-96.
    2. Irene Y.H. Ng & Jian Qi Tan, 2021. "Economic distress and health: A fixed effects analysis of low‐income persons in Singapore," International Journal of Social Welfare, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 17-29, January.

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